Leaky Condo Disaster Turned Out My First Bucket of Gold
I first time became a home owner in 1999.
I bought a 670 sqf, 1BR condo unit, 21-year old building, wood-stucco structured, located in the lower mainland, BC. I occupied this unit as my primary residence until it was sold in 2005.
Half year after the purchase, leakage problem began to be noticed from the windows of some units (not my unit) .
Eventually a special levy was passed by a special general meeting of the owners.
Special levy paid by me in 2001--2004: $15K (the levy ranged between $1.1K to $ 2.5K depending on the unit size).
Fortunately, the leakage problem of the building was not of the same nature as “The Leaky Condo Disaster” which plagued thousands of condo owners in lower mainland, BC.
This notorious leaky condo disaster happened only on the buildings constructed from 1983 to 1998 due to inappropriate construction code followed by the developers which resulted in the failure of the whole exterior envelope of the building .
The building of my condo was constructed in 1978 (5 years before the bad code was introduced to BC). I was lucky I escaped that famous disaster.
The building was totally renovated in 2003.
I sold the unit in 2005:
Sold price: 210K
Realtor commission paid: 11k
Notary fee: $600
Interest paid to mortgagor bank in 6 years: 1.2K
Strata fee paid in 6 years: $160x 12 x 6 = 1.2 K
Property tax paid in 6 years: $550 x 6 = $3300
Capital gain on the property: 210K-70K = 140K
Remember I paid 30K down and 15K special levy.
Net income: 140K - Cost (30K+15K+11K+1.2K+1.2K+$3300+$600) =78K
No need to mention I saved the rent payment for 6 years. That should be $600 x 12 x 6 = 43K.
The unit was sold to a white guy who worked as a civil construction engineer in city hall of Vancouver (my realtor told me this). Later in 2006 I checked the BC assessment price of the unit for 2006 and it was assessed at 225K. The buyer guy made a pretty fortune as well in less than one year.
Bought at the bear market and sold at the bull market without any intention to time the market, and even luckier that I was able to narrowly escape a catastrophe!
I can only say I was too lucky on this house purchasing. I do not want to say I conducted an investment. I just simply wanted to be a HOME OWNER, not to be a RENTER at that time.
Thus, survival from a leaky condo disaster turned out my first bucket of gold.
Following are some pictures of the building taken at 2005. Guess where it is located? There are clues in the pictures.
$580 is the approximately highest monthly repayment at highest rate (somewhere at 5.9% ). In some months I only paid $490 when the rate dropped.
If I continued to pay $580 per month, at the end of 25 year amortization, I will have paid 174K-70K = 104K of INTEREST to the bank, as shown in your caluculation.
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